Not yet the seasoned blogger, I don't have a list of ideas for posts to write each day. Fortunately, (at least for this blog) there is enough going on in the evolving Entrecard community that I can usually find something that tickles my fancy. Today my interest is back on card dropping strategy, with a pinch of advertising strategy thrown in. My first post on this blog was about chain dropping and I thought it was interesting that a few folks disagreed with my approach. (Note: I have several previous posts about Entrecard on My Internet Marketing Adventures blog.) There are many paths up the mountain and I'm trekking on one that works for me, although it might not work for others. As such, I'm not attempting to be an expert or suggesting that others follow my path.

One of the paths that I followed as a new member of the Entrecard community was that of an upright guy with the unlikely handle of Turnip. His response to my post about chain dropping can be found in the comments section, but is worth highlighting here in its entirety:

Thanks for mentioning my list. I wanted to make a few comments about the history of it. I created it by going through every single entrecard at the time. It was an excercise in trying to be more efficient with my time. Every single card. Those above the fold got in, those who weren't even close didn't. If people want to play "where's waldo" with their entrecard, then I want nothing to do with them, and certainly don't want to advertise on a hidden card. When I finished my first list, I considered selling it. Only problem was the shop wasn't open yet, and I had an A-hole in the forums campaigning against my blogs. I released the list for free, and kept adding names from the "most recent" category until I had nearly 350 names. I then deleted all blogs that hadn't posted in over 30 days. I also deleted obvious spam blogs. That dropped me under 300 again. When my blog got popular, some people started asking how they could get on the list. I had always added anyone who asked, but decide to ask for a technorati favorite or subscribe to rss as a return favor. There never was any clique as I here some people claim. Recently I created 2 new categories, favorites and new blogs. By dropping blogs that seem inactive, and adding hungry new blogs, my list should give you a very high return drop rate. The problem is you have to do it every day, comment, and post in the forums so people actually notice your name.

Coincidentally, I just raised the question in the Entrecard forum of creating an Inactive Status for Entrecard accounts that are dead in the water. Why? For the reason that Turnip points out...by not dropping on Inactive accounts it should improve the return drop rate and increase one's efficiency. Not a big deal if you are only dropping 5-10 cards a day (which when some folks recently mentioned in a forum post, I promptly took them off my chain drop list), but if you are dropping 300 cards each from multiple accounts, efficiency gets to be really important.

I have further posited that separate lists based on the location of the Entrecarder might eventually be of value. Not now, but if there are 2500 ACTIVE Entrecarders and you have plenty to choose from, why not have separate lists that would have your Entrecard being dropped at the time of day when it would have the highest probability of being returned? The day of the week comes into play also. I've noticed that Friday afternoon and evening are SLOW and Saturday can get really busy, reflecting how many people are sitting down at their computers versus doing something else. And while it's possible to capture all the cards dropped on you via a feed reader pointed at your inbox, wouldn't you want your card to be "fresh" and not the last one on the list to get a return drop?

And what about those chain droppers who dropping on your site every day? As I mentioned in an earlier post, do you need to drop a card back on them every day? No. I'll bet once a week would do it. They aren't going to notice and they're not going to take it personally. (There goes my card off of everyone's list.) Eventually I plan to have a list of chain droppers and a list of return droppers and time my drops on each list accordingly.

For what it's worth, I prefer to subscribe to a blog via email. For some reason I can scan it and archive it (bless you Gmail) and move to the next one without having to wait for someone's site to load or deal with their ads. I have also found that card dropping with images and page colors turned off is faster and more conducive to reading content. To each his own.

Finally, my tip for the day about advertising: When looking in the Category listings, roll your mouse over the Entrecards and check out their "http://entrecard.com/details/XXXX" number. Higher numbers are reflective of newer Entrecards, but not necessarily newer Entrecard accounts, as each time you submit a new Entrecard design it is given a new number. However, if you see a lower number that has available ad space and is in the middle or lower part of the Category, it's very possible that that is an inactive or disinterested account and your ad won't be approved or you won't get any real benefit from it if it does. I'm in the process of removing these accounts from my chain drop lists as there is very little chance that I will get a return drop.

Thanks for the mention. More proof that I do read the blogs I click, especially if I pass a catchy headline twice a day. Eventually your blog gets popular enough that you can't easily keep track of everyone who drops. That's why being active in the community is important. It reminds the busy blogs you exist. On the other hand, best not to embarrass yourself in the forums either. I've removed a few blogs from my bookmarks after personal attacks there. That's 60 less credits a month from me alone, now multiply that by everyone that uses bookmarks based off of my list.

Another good strategy you picked up on is linking to other entrecarders. It sure got me here fast, though not as fast as Deimos. Then take an argument made in the comments and spin that into a new column. You keep your old commentors interested and bring more people to the discussion.

Spotting inactives is good advice. I use their last post date, but your method saves visiting the site in the first place if you are creating your own list.